9.12. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a protocol for accessing distributed directory information over over TCP/IP. A directory contains a collection of related data, organized hierarchically in a tree format. Each node in the tree is a directory entry, and each entry consists of a set of attribute-value pairs. Each directory entry has a unique identifier, known as its Distinguished Name (DN). The DN consists of a Relative Distinguished Name (RDN), constructed from an attribute from the entry itself, followed by the parent entry’s DN.